Brought together by blues
by bhut
Summary: Grant. Daisy. The blues music. And some other people. Maybe.


**Brought together by blues**

_Disclaimer: all characters here belong to Marvel™._

_Across the multiverse…_

Once upon a time, when Grant Douglas Ward was feeling despondent, out of place, ill-fitting in his own skin and had nothing to do to distract him from those feelings, in peeked his number one friend, (in a manner of speaking), Kara Lynn Palamas, and said brightly:

"Big guy, I know what we're doing this evening!" she said brightly.

"It's evening already?" Grant sceptically looked outside his window. Out there was a bright blue clear sky, almost transparent in its' blueness, typical of late summer late afternoons/early evenings. The sun was glowing bright gold in the sky, the shadows were crisp and black and clear-cut, the contrast between darkness and light, (literally speaking), very much obvious. It was warm. There was barely a breeze. Sounds of music were coming from a distance.

"Yes," Kara said firmly; "it's _late_ summer now; it's evening already by summer standards! Now come on!" she raised a finger upwards to emphasize her point. "We're going _out_!"

Grant frowned slightly, as he thought, while looking at the outside. At this point in the year _and_ the day, it was the 'brightest hour before the dusk', in a manner of speaking, as it was still very much daytime, but all the birds and similar creatures were quietly beginning to settle down for the sunset and the dark night ahead. As he looked askance at Kara, he could not help but to feel that her bright grin was somehow similar to the summer evening outside, that it was hiding something completely different from what it showed; but-

But Grant was tired, and feeling out of place, and he was tired of feeling that, and he did not want others – and especially Kara – to feel his misery and worry and similar feelings, and the view outside was so wonderful, and the music – so beckoning, that what he said instead was:

"Does your idea has anything to do with the music?" he asked, even as he got onto his feet and changed into his summer clothing for the street. "'Cause it sounds like blues. I like blues."

"Maybe," Kara blinked, smiled – much more shyly than whenever she was pretending to feel confident – and scratched the floor with her shoe. "Wait. Does it mean that I don't have to badger at you to come outside?"

"No," Grant said firmly, as he took her arm in arm. "The weather is good, the climate is good, the time is good, and the timing? I feel that it is time for a different view on things, so let's go?" The last bit was more of a question than a statement, but Kara promptly ignored that nuance:

"Really?" she said brightly, (but with a real, not a pretend, brightness). "Awesome! It is about time we got a change around here. Let's go!"

And off they went.

/ / /

Daisy was having a bad day. Between the crazy-ass dream about a pussy willow studded with gold stars, (seriously, weren't dreams of that sort Raina's thing?), and the feeling that something was just wrong, which _wouldn't_ go away all day long, she was explosive and miserable and it wasn't even her time of the month.

"Right, that's it," Leo Fitz spoke suddenly, startling everyone. "I'm tired of walking on eggshells around Daisy; Lincoln, there's some sort of a late summer music festival outside – take her out!"

There was a pause as everyone stared at the, um, height-challenged Scotsman, let us describe Leo Fitz thusly. "Uh, I'm standing by my statement," he said bravely, (from behind Jemma Simmons, just in case he needed extra courage or something).

There was a pause as everyone's attention switched to Daisy instead. The InHuman woman just stared back. "What?" she asked crossly. On one hand, she did not really want to go; on the other, she could not shake the feeling that if she stayed, it would be worse for some reason. "Fine, let's go. I'm tired of us being the two to clean up the messes left by the FitzSimmons after Leo mounts Jemma's shapely flanks or whatever."

The FitzSimmons opened their mouths.

Daisy gave them a look.

The FitzSimmons closed their mouths.

"Thank you," Daisy said curtly, and taking Lincoln, (who gave the FitzSimmons a look of his own, not as scary as Daisy's, but still formidable), the two of them left.

Fitz opened his mouth again.

"Don't push it," Mack, who was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director in this corner of multiverse, also, told him wearily.

And Leo did not.

/ / /

Outside, the weather continued to deliver. The shadows were growing, but the sunlight was still golden, and not so much hot, as warm. This was good, especially after the sweltering July and all.

As Grant and Kara walked, they passed by other couples, all of them drawn – in a non-supernatural, non-evil way – towards the mini music festival, as the blues and other melodies fit very well with the early evening air, sounding almost as natural at this time of the day as the chorus of the local grasshoppers, crickets and cicadas did. Man-made and natural music intertwined together with sunlight and made everyone feel happy.

…Yes, it had to be admitted, that for a while now, ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen, (though Hydra failed to rise), and John died because of reasons, Grant Ward had never been truly happy, but today, with sun shining off to their side in the west, (as time was switching from day to dusk properly now), and Kara hanging off on his arm, with her head on his shoulder, he practically was.

…Well, speaking of past tenses, there was- there had been- but maybe it was time to move on at last, who knows? Grant was tired of leaving in the past and he was largely tired of S.H.I.E.L.D. in general as well. Maybe it _was_ time to move on after all, and the music was so wonderful…

"We're here," Kara muttered softly into his shoulder, with her hair down. (Grant actually preferred Kara with her hair up, with hair down she looked disturbingly like May, but he was not nowhere stupid enough to acknowledge that aloud).

"Yes we are," he agreed softly.

Something changed in this moment—

/ / /

As they walked through the streets outside, Daisy's mood began to grow more unstable. Back in the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ she felt uncomfortable and unpleasant, but nothing more, and if Leo Fitz had not opened his big – ok, adorably little – mouth, Daisy would have passed today without incident and that would be the end of that.

Instead, she found herself walking the city streets with Lincoln, her boyfriend, and unexplainably found herself angry about that by the minute. It _was not_ her time of the month, she checked, but neither did she feel like herself, for whatever reason. It was annoying, and there was nothing that she could do.

And then there was the music. It was blues. It was soul music, and though Daisy was NYC raised and bred, (metaphorically speaking), it was speaking to her, and she was feeling increasingly angry and out of place in this glorious sunny summer evening, and-

And to top it all off, all of the anger, confusion, and everything else in between them, there were Grant and agent 33, standing in the crowd, listening to the music, looking very much a couple.

Something snapped inside of Daisy, and she made a choice. With a barely supressed guttural roar – screw it, she had a bad day, she was justified in acting crazy! – she grabbed Lincoln, pulled him over, switched him with Grant and pulled Grant away. She _was_ aware that she was acting atypically for herself, probably even insane, but she did not care. Daisy had had enough of everything, period.

"I can see that," Grant did not appear too excited to see her, given everything that passed between them. "Bad day?"

"Yes," Daisy agreed crossly. She and Grant exchanged another look. "Want to start together, anew?"

Grant gave her another look. "I'm probably making a mistake," he exhaled, "but yes. Let's."

The two fell silent and, standing side by side, listened, to the blues, as the musical notes span around the streets and flew up into the evening air, where the overly reddish-pink hue of sunset gave way to the ever-darkening evening sky.

End

PS: And if Kara opened her previously closed eyes slightly, gave Lincoln a once over and smiled rather happily and contently at this sight, then she did not say anything. And neither did Lincoln, (who was not too upset either).


End file.
